Gartner Tells Reporter: You're Not Allowed To Mention Gartner Research Without Our Permission

Moldover Gives People A Reason To Buy His CD By Turning The Case Into An Instrument

from the rock-out dept

Fri, Aug 21st 2009 9:10am — Mike Masnick

Another day, another example of a musician not freaking out about "piracy" but looking to create innovative reasons to actually buy something. The latest is the artist Moldover, who not only learned how to build circuit boards that display the album artwork and spell out the song titles, but he actually turned the CD case itself into a fully functional instrument. Check it out:

It has a button that makes sound, and then you can adjust the sound via light sensor that creates a virtual theremin. On top of that, it has a line-out jack, that lets you listen quietly, or record music via the CD case itself.

It seems like every day we see new and different examples of artists coming up with cool reasons to actually buy product. While some critics insist that these sorts of things only work once, I tend to believe that creativity knows no bounds, and we'll keep seeing more and more unique ideas.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: cd, instrument, moldover, reason to buy, rtb

37 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Xyro TR1 (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 8:17am

I'm impressed
This is one of the most unique ideas I've seen implemented in a long time. Props to him for coming up with such an impressive marketing technique.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Xyro TR1 (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 8:23am

Re: I'm impressed
I'm so impressed, in fact, that I just bought a copy.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 9:14am

I am impressed, but I have to ask the obvious question: Is the music that lame that nobody would buy it on it's own?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 9:17am

Wait, What?
I'm still trying to wrap my head around 'virtual theremin.'

Neat idea, though.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 9:19am

Re:
Who buys CDs for music?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Steven, 21 Aug 2009 @ 9:48am

Fantastic!
That is a fantastic idea! I am considering buying a copy. This is the coolest thing I've seen since Year Zero's temperature sensitivity. Props!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
yozoo, 21 Aug 2009 @ 10:12am

UH OH
How many patents did he violate . . . looks like trouble to me!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
imbrucy (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 10:22am

That is actually an awesome idea and I love the fact that he demonstrates playing some music with it in the video. I may buy his cd just to mess around with the case.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Alan Gerow (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 10:23am

Re:
I don't think that's the obvious question. To me, the obvious question is: Why aren't more artists trying things like this?

Here's an artist who's at least giving people a reason to pay for something that's creative and fun over downloading that isn't suing everybody they can think of and demanding some "right to be paid" that they made up.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 10:27am

Re: Re:
Secondend; you buy CDs because you enjoy the music by the artist. Kind of a collector's thing, kind of a fanboy thing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
baditup (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 10:27am

WOW!
That's freakin awesome! Good marketing strategy....
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 10:27am

I have no idea who this musician is.

I have no idea if his/her music sucks or not.

I want that CD!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 10:40am

Re:
"I have no idea if his/her music sucks or not.

I want that CD!"

Interesting in that we seem to have the RtB in front of the CwF, whereas it's usually the other way 'round.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Cyanid Pontifex (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 10:54am

That looks pretty awesome. I really sort of want it now.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
diabolic (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 10:57am

This is 'neat' but who wants to buy plastic discs?

In this article and the one the other day about Pay What You Want both centered around selling plastic discs. This site has articles all the time that talk about how people do not want to buy plastic discs. So we have a neat feature that may be a reason to buy and a plastic disc that is not a reason to buy. How about affordable and downloadable tracks in the same quality that is available on the plastic disc? How about the neat plastic disc case that plays music but with a key to download the track and without the plastic disc?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 11:04am

Re:
If you are going to buy physical product, the CD is still a very desirable thing to have. In fact, many of the people who spend hours a day downloading stuff also spend them time to burn it to disc for safe keeping.

Regardless of what Mike tries to tell you, the shiny plastic discs are still important to consumers, and even fairly important to (non consumer) infringers
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Chronno S. Trigger (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 11:04am

Re:
or a neat plastic disk without copy protection so we can just rip it.

There are thousands of ways things could go. As ChurchHatesTucker pointed out, the RtB and CwF can come in any order and from any place.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 11:13am

Getchyer gimmicks here! Step right up! Getchyer gimmicks here! Limited supplies, getchyers before they run out!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 11:25am

Re: Re:
I'm quite sure that Mike hasn't said that plastic discs are not wanted. In fact, many of the artists that he's praised have sold plastic discs. Mike's reasoning has usually been that CD purchases should be voluntary and not forced.

The issue isn't that plastic discs are dead, it's that CDs are dead as the means to get the music, and you have an entire industry clinging to that dead model as the source of their revenue.

If you want the music, buy the music. If you want the CD, buy the CD. A marketing strategy that forces people to buy the (more expensive) CD when they want the music just ticks off the customers.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Noah Body, 21 Aug 2009 @ 11:53am

Sweet Idea
That's so cool that i just bought the pocket version.

+1 Props to Moldover
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Dirk Belligerent, 21 Aug 2009 @ 12:08pm

What are you people? 12-year-olds?!?
Reading the comments, it's not surprising that that in everyone's herdthink of "Who buys music? Who wants a piece of plastic?" no one has considered that CDs SOUND BETTER!!!

I was reading in the new Wired last night - printed on dead tree product! SUCK IT!!! - about the "MP3 Effect" and how "good enough" quality was becoming preferred. They mentioned an experiment that incoming college students who were played music from various sources and nowadays, these kids preferred the distorted lossy sound of MP3s because they think that's how music is supposed to sound.

I've always found it ironic that as digital recording has gone into 192KHz territory (e.g. ProTools HD), the final product delivery method may be a compressed audio format with no dynamics and everything abouve 16KHz lopped off. Yeesh. May as well record into a boom box if that's how it's going to end up.

Hate to sound like a grumpy old man, but you kids with your sneering arrogance about music delivery methods are ignorant punks.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 12:12pm

Re: What are you people? 12-year-olds?!?
MP3s? What are those? Some ancient data format?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Alan Gerow (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 12:13pm

Re: Re:
Well, the thing is the disc in the store comes with 12-20 songs. The back-up discs people create store several hundred. Thousands on a DVD.

If I could legally purchase discs of hundreds or thousands of MP3s instead of a dozen at a time, that would make the commercial purchase of the disc format more interesting.

As it stands, a whole disc for a dozen songs is a complete waste of physical storage space. I've sold off most of my CDs because I got tired of storing and moving them around. An entire box of commercial CDs fits on one DVD-R.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Skeptical Cynic (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 12:20pm

Re: What are you people? 12-year-olds?!?
I have for a long time been a big audiophile. (I spent over $3k on a audio set up 15 years ago.) And in some ways I do agree with you. The simple fact is that MOST people don't really hear the extra range and depth and they don't want to pay for it. It's like a color blind person paying for a rainbow painting. And unfortunately if musicians and music sellers want to make the most money they must appeal to the widest group of buyers.

PS. I think this is why people pay to go see concerts because they get all the range and depth they miss in the CDs.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Alan Gerow (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 12:21pm

Re: What are you people? 12-year-olds?!?
Except you grew up listening to music on LP, cassette tape, and then CDs. I knew people in the '90s who bemoaned CDs because it sounded too crisp and empty ... it lost the warm fuzziness of the tape or LP ... it felt less organic.

As far as I'm concerned, most MP3s that are properly encoded display no noticeable difference in sound quality to me from the CD source. It's people who encode at crappy settings or with crappy software that get crap out in the end.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Skeptical Cynic (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 12:22pm

Re: Re: What are you people? 12-year-olds?!?
Oh, and I am thinking of buying the CD just because he needs to be rewarded for trying something new.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
diabolic (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 12:28pm

Re: Re:
The only reason plastic discs are still important is because they offer the high quality recordings that are genreally available. Most downloads are much lower quality. Plastic discs themselves are not important.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TheStupidOne, 21 Aug 2009 @ 12:50pm

Re: Re:
That's because it is a pretty interesting application of circuitry and this place is dominated by geeks
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 12:51pm

Re: I'm impressed
cds are so passe
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 12:54pm

Re: Re: What are you people? 12-year-olds?!?
"PS. I think this is why people pay to go see concerts because they get all the range and depth they miss in the CDs."

I think you were spot-on earlier, in that there are people who 'get' the audiophile portions of what's offered.

And most people, I suspect, don't get that. They go to concerts for (a)Social reasons, (b)Support reasons, and (c)Bragging rights.

I've seen the same thing happen in Second Life, which pretty much takes the audiophile part out of the equation.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Azrael (profile), 21 Aug 2009 @ 1:11pm

Re: Re:
I do, if the music i want to hear is worth the money for a much better quality compared to your average mp3 file.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 1:47pm

Why not just state the obvious? this guy is selling a cute toy, and hoping like heck that people might actually listen to the music.

Perhaps he should just get into the selling electronics business instead.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 4:04pm

Re: Re: Re:
Who listens to MP3 files for music?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 7:34pm

Re:
All music is, by that definition.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 21 Aug 2009 @ 7:37pm

Re: What are you people? 12-year-olds?!?
"CDs SOUND BETTER!!!"

You're right! Unlike downloaded songs, which are just binary data that sounds like computer crap, CDs are the real sound stored into a magic plastic device! It's probably some sort of vibration thingy like vinyl records, you should try and put them under a needle and make them sound!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Derek Kerton (profile), 22 Aug 2009 @ 8:52am

Re:
The irony is that you don't understand how that is good business.

We all did see "the obvious". Mike did state it. But the "cute toy" is more than you seem to understand. It is linked to the music and the artist, and is thus promotional. Plus it gives the artist a scarce, tangible product to sell, which gives people a reason to buy. They don't have much reason to buy the music, which he gives away for free (also promotional).

Ultimately, this "obvious" ploy will lead to:
a) More disks sold, more revenue
2) More awareness of this artist, buzz, sharing
II) More live performance ticket sales, performance revenue
v) More merch sales at shows
70 Goto a) and repeat

Yeah! I mean, how stupid is that! Gawd! Stupid musician, "hoping like heck that people might actually listen to the music" and doing something to make that happen. You're right, he should just quit instead.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 30 Dec 2009 @ 10:32pm

Re:
NO WAY! The music is amazing he is just smart enough to know that he wants his listeners to be involved and give them a reason to want to buy the CD.
[ link to this | view in thread ]